Pilot

"I don't know if what I saw came from the powder."

Written by Robert Kirkman & Dave Erickson
Directed by Adam Davidson

"Cal, the church, it was a bloodbath. It was a horror show. Gloria killed two people. And I need to get it out of my head."

— Nicholas "Nick" Clark

In an abandoned church in central Los Angeles, a teenager named Nick Clark wakes up in a haze.

As he wakes up, he calls to a woman named Gloria but receives no response. He gets up and starts walking down the halls of the church, and is horrified to discover blood on the walls, as well as a man with a wound on his head. Nick stumbles down to the main floor of the church, where he sees Gloria kneeled over in front of someone. When he calls to her, she turns to him, revealing that she has been eating another man before trying to attack him.

Horrified, Nick immediately runs out of the church and into the streets. When he pauses to take a breath, he's hit by a car and knocked to the ground. As concerned citizens arrive and ask if he's alright, the camera pans back to the bustling L.A. metropolis...

Elsewhere, a family is getting ready to start their day. School counselor Madison Clark watches her fiancee, fellow teacher Travis Manawa, fix a leaking faucet, and tells her daughter Alicia to get ready for school. The phone rings and Travis answers it, where he learns that Nick (Madison's son from a previous marriage) was injured and is at the hospital.

When the three of them arrive at the hospital, a pair of policemen are questioning Nick, who feigns innocence over why he was in the streets. When the officers leave, Madison tries to explain that she can help him, but he coldly rebuffs her. Travis also gets a call from his ex-wife, Liza, and tells her about what happened with Nick. Travis tries to get Liza and his son, Chris, to join them for a weekend outing, but the latter coldly refuses before they hang up on him.

Travis offers to stay with Nick, while Madison goes to work at the school. When they leave, Travis asks him that his experience at the church must have been a nightmare. Nick claims otherwise, but wonders if he's losing his mind because of the drugs. Travis offers to check it out after Nick claims he was running from Gloria eating someone in the church.

As Madison drives to work, Alicia claims that they should disown Nick for the good of the family. Madison vows not to before they arrive, and Alicia goes off to class. On the way in, Madison meets the school principal, Artie, who tells her that more and more kids are out because of a flu. When a teen named Tobias walks into the school and sets off a metal detector, she pulls him into her office.

She reveals that she found a knife in his pocket, but didn't tell Artie about it. When she asks why he has a weapon on him, Tobias claims that there are reports of people killing each other in five states because of an affliction and that he wants to protect himself. Madison refuses to give back the knife and tells him to spend less time online, but Tobias walks out in anger.

Outside the school, Alicia goes to meet with her boyfriend, Matt. They exchange small talk and meet up later on the school roof, where she tells him that she's been accepted to Berkley College and is unsure what the future holds. Matt says that he'd like to spend some time with her at the beach the following evening, and she agrees.

That night, Travis goes to investigate the church. He gets in through an open window and makes his way through the halls, seeing the same blood in the hallways. When he hears a noise, he opens the door and discovers a drug addict who yells at him before running away. Travis loses him in the chase, but finds blood and gore in the main foyer of the church before he leaves.

When Travis arrives at the hospital the next morning with Alicia, they discover that Madison stayed with Nick overnight. She and Alicia head to the school, and Travis tells the former about what he saw outside. However, Madison refuses to believe it and claims that the church is a drug den where people get stabbed all the time. Nick also claims to Alicia that he wants to get clean from drugs.

Later, when a nurse brings a bedpan for Nick to use, he convinces her to untie one of his straps. When she does so and leaves, he unties his straps, but is distracted by a man in the next bed who dies after making heavy breathing noises. A group of doctors immediately rush in and tell the staffers to wheel the man downstairs, and don't answer any of Nick's questions about what happened. When they leave, he hurriedly steals the personal belongings of the man who was wheeled out and sneaks out of the hospital.

When Madison and Travis arrive later, they find the nurse, who is dismissive of them and claims she's busy before leaving. At the same time, Alicia goes to the beach to wait for Matt but never receives a response despite calling, and leaves soon afterwards.

Travis and Madison go to the church again, and she breaks down upon seeing where Nick slept and was taking drugs. They drive to the house of Nick's friend, Calvin, and ask if he saw him, but he replies in the negative.

Later that night, the duo are driving back when they get stuck in traffic by a highway ramp. As Travis gets out of the car to investigate, he sees policemen and firefighters shouting and shooting at something. He quickly gets back in the vehicle and they drove off.

The next morning, Madison and Alicia arrive at school and discover more people are out sick. While Madison drops in Travis' class and visits Artie, Alicia learns that someone filmed a viral video of a man who passed away at the ramp. As they watch, the man seemingly rises from the dead and bites two firefighters before being shot several times to no effect. He is killed for good when the officers shoot him in the head. The PA announces that school has been cancelled for the rest of the day, and Madison goes to pick her up. As they leave, Madison sees Tobias as he stares at her from a school bus.

Elsewhere, Nick has bought a portable cellular phone and asks to meet with someone. He arrives at a diner, where he meets... Calvin, who is revealed to be a drug dealer. Nick asks if Calvin gave him bad drugs and rants about his experience, leading Calvin to claim that he can help. He drives Nick out to the L.A. canals and attempts to shoot him. Nick notices the gun before Calvin can fire and jumps at him. The ensuing scuffle sees the gun go off, hitting Calvin in the chest. Calvin dies from his injuries and Nick freaks out and runs away.

He calls Travis and Madison, who drive out and meet him near the canal entrance. When they ask where he's been, he tells them about Calvin's death and leads them out to the site of the accident. Once there, they see that Calvin's body is gone and the car is empty.

When the trio get back in their vehicle and attempt to drive back through the tunnel, they see Calvin staggering along. Both adults get out of the car to talk to him, and Madison is nearly bit before Nick sees what is happening and drives the car right over him. As they look on in shock, he reverses the car and runs into Calvin again, sending the corpse flying back into the canal.

Nick exits the car and stands with Madison and Travis, clearly confused as to what is happening...

Tropes:

All Girls Want Bad Boys: Implied, both with Nick's relationship with his "friend" Gloria (both of them being junkies), and Alicia's relationship with Matt.
All There in the Manual: The full viral video watched by Alicia and her friends in class was released after the episode, and shows an alternate (and clearer) view of the deceased man rising up and attacking several firefighters and CHP officers before being shot and, eventually, executed.
Artistic License – Biology: Nick has been in the hospital, unable to get a fix, for two days before escaping, and tells Calvin that he hasn't had heroin in over 48 hours. Due to his addiction, his brain chemistry would already be dependent on the heroin, so if he had already gone that long without it, he should already be in serious pain from withdrawal. However, when they meet, while he is clearly uncomfortable, he isn't going through obvious symptoms yet. To the show's credit, he does go through them in the next episode.
Asshole Victim: Calvin, full stop.
Bait-and-Switch: When Madison enters Artie's office, she sees him hunched over and not moving. As the music flares up slowly, the viewer may assume that Artie will pull a Face-Revealing Turn to shock the audience with his zombification. However, it's revealed that he is still human, and was evaluating the teachers' performances by listening to them through speakers.
Black Dude Dies First: Played to the hilt. Three black men are either dead/missing by the end of the first episode (the man Gloria was eating in the church, Matt and Calvin). Subverted with Matt, who isn't yet dead but turns up in episode 2 dying of a bite wound.
Bookends: With the main series, in a way. Both pilot episodes begin with a scene where a man confronts a female walker who turns to face him. They also both involve major characters being injured (Nick from being hit by a car, Rick by being shot twice) recovering in a hospital and learning more about the undead epidemic.
- Also true of the episode on its own, as it both begins and ends with members of the Clark family gaping in horrified disbelief at the reanimated remains of someone they know, whose body is obviously too mangled to be alive.
Canon Foreigner: All of the characters introduced in the series are not present in the comic series at all.
Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Soon after Matt promises to take Alicia to the beach (and then back to his house) for the night, he immediately disappears and isn't seen or heard from again, presumably having been attacked/killed by walkers.
Developing Doomed Characters: Most of the background students, school faculty and medical personnel are this, considering what the audience knows will eventually happen. As such, the episode takes on a bittersweet feeling as characters try to make plans to change their lives, only to be thwarted by the walker uprising.
Disappeared Dad: Nick and Alicia's father is nowhere to be seen, while Travis gets an inversion of this because he's the disappeared parent in his son's life.
Dr. Jerk: The nurse who's overseeing Nick in the hospital drops any pretext when he escapes (it's dubious as to whether she untied his restraints just because he wanted to stretch) and acts dickish and dismissive to Madison and Travis when they come in looking for him.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Considering she works in an ER Just Before the End, she most likely is overworked and has much higher priorities than where the junkie ran off to.
Dull Surprise:
- Alicia and her friends' only response to the viral video of a man coming back from the dead and biting several people before being put down... is to half-heartedly mock the fact that said man was shot in the head.
- The final scene has Madison and Nick asking "What the hell is happening?" in a bored, monotone voice.
False Utopia: Played with. Most of the main characters don't realize anything is wrong with the sick students and general lack of people on the streets of L.A. until they're nearly killed by a walker.
Fan Disservice: In the opening, Nick calls out to Gloria, who's seen kneeled down and wearing nothing but a tanktop and underwear... except when she turns around, she has blood all over her face and a knife embedded in her ribs.
Foreshadowing:
- As the episode goes on, sirens and helicopters can be heard more and more frequently in the background of many scenes.
- The camera pauses for several moments when Madison puts Tobias' knife in the office drawer.
- When Madison picks up the used syringe in the church, she pauses and stares at it for several moments while talking about how everyone has their issues, hinting that addiction might be something that runs in the family.
Government Conspiracy: An in-universe supplemental document from the CDC (released during the episode) mentions guidelines to doctors on how to handle dead patients, clearly setting up that the government knows more than it's letting on.
He Knows Too Much: With Nick freaking out and his family asking questions, Calvin fears that Nick will tell someone that Calvin is a drug dealer. He decides to take Nick out to a desolate location and shoot him dead, but this fails.
Impairment Shot: When Nick runs through the streets after escaping the church, the screen briefly becomes distorted and bright (to symbolize the lingering effects of his drug use).
Jump Scare: When Madison goes to visit Artie in his office, complete with a Scare Chord. Thankfully, it's just a red herring. For now.
My Beloved Smother: Madison is clearly attached to her son, to the point that she wants to put him back in rehab again and sleeps on his bed beside him when he's in the hospital.
There's No Kill like Overkill: Both the unnamed man on the highway ramp (pumped full of bullets by oblivious cops before being finally put down for good with a headshot) and Calvin (shot in the chest and then run over twice by Nick) exemplify this trope.
What Happened to the Mouse?: Where the undead Gloria or the unnamed junkie who flees from the drug den are isn't followed up on.